Trinidad-Part 2--We've traveled 2335 Nautical miles/Shark and Bake

August 2008

People have been asking where exactly ae we so we thought this map would help.We have spent the past 20 months traveling the Eastern Caribbean . The GPS says we have travled 2335 nautical miles. The black line is our 2007 travels and the grey is this year.

Between working on completing tasks we make time for a few excursions exploring Trinidad.

We continue to enjoy the Crews Inn Marina however for cruisers out there considering a trip to Trinidad we thought we should update you on changes at Crews Inn. After we were here two weeks we were notified the dockage fees were to be increased Aug. 1st to 79 cents a foot for a 31-180 night stay and this now is to be paid in advance. The power has gone from $2.00 a day to about $10.00 a day for us. (It is now .35U.S./kwth plus the normal 15% VAT) We have also received notice that Crews Inn will start Sept. 1st to charge for the wireless internet because the system has been upgraded. Unfortunately at this point the wireless is only in fact working intermittently so who knows wh at will happen come Sept. 1.
We do love the pool.

We recently did a City Tour with Jesse James which we thoroughly enjoyed.

We saw this Salt water croc basking in the mud.

We saw the Queen’s Park Savannah which is the city’s largest green space…260acres.
The park is surrounded by a large “round a bout” meaning the road completely circles the park. We drove past the Magnificent 7. These were residences built in the early 1900’s and are now protected by the local Historical society from being demolished because of their unique architectural style.

Most were quite over grown and difficult to see. It looked like this was the only one inhabited. The Trinidadians want to save these historical buildings but quite honestly I don’t know where they will find the necessary funds as they all need major refurbishing.

Then past the Prime Ministers Residence

We picked up lunch and took it up to Fort George where we enjoyed lovely views of the city. Fort George was used as a signal station until 1964.

Today the panoramic view was not clear enough to see Venezuela.

Randy tried to get me locked up in the dungeon.

(Just kidding)

Last stop was to see how the Steelpan’s are made. This truly was amazing. The steelpan originated in Trinidad and Tobago. The pan is a pitched percussion instrument, made from a 55 gallon drum (like an oil drum). The pan falls into the idiophone family of instruments ( an instrument creating sound primarily by way of the instrument vibrating itself) and is in fact technically not a drum.

Tony showed us how he stretches the steel with his hammer and then marks and shape the notes on the surface. The larger the oval the lower the tone. After tempering the notes are softened and tuned. The process will probably take a week. A steelpan will need to be tuned once or twice a year.

There are 13 instruments in the Pan family which include double, triple guitar and cello. Truly Amazing!!!

Out in the dinghy we came across the UNDA…Chris is this your dad’s boat that he and Grandpa brought to Canada from England back in the 70's ??

One of the completed tasks. Accordian window covers for the hatches. They worked out well, letting in light but giving us privacy. Randy has cleaned up one of our “peeling” cleats and his sanding and varnishing looks gorgeous. It looks like one of Randy’s weekly chores is cleaning out the air conditioning strainer that gets full of little “gremlins”.

The Chaguaramus water taxi is ran by Campbell. This is an option for crossing the bay rather than using our own dinghy or hiking around to the other side of the bay.

August 20th, SHARK AND BAKE:

Traveling over an hour through the mountains to the Northern Coast

We arrive at Maracas Beach for the famous Shark & Bake. We were told Maracas Beach is where this local dish started. The beach itself was named after a popular instrument used in Trinidadian “Parang” music called the marac a xylophone-like instrument. Parang music is usually heard at Christmas. We went on this trip with Donna & Barry (S/V SEA STAR EH!)

Jan (Yon) and Teri,(S/V KIVA)

Jay and Jennifer (S/V RUM RUNNER)

and Gervais and Manon (S/V LA BETE) oops where are you Gervais??

A group of children were learning how to surf.

The beach again is different from others we’ve seen—the sand is mocha in colour and instead of lots of shells we see all sizes of stones and rocks. What makes this area different is the rocks look like driftwood.

We are told Richards Shark and Bake is the best on the island. The Shark is excellent. It reminds me of Halibut. It is not greasy and the home made bun is very light in texture. We can add condiments which include an incredible assortment of hot and not so hot sauces, shredded cabbage or lettuce, avocado and pineapple. Hard to get your mouth around this one.

Hope we're not boring you with all these pics but I don’t think we can ever get enough of these beautiful beaches.

We stopped at a roadside stand to purchase the local fruit Sweet Apple(sugar apple). To me it tasted like soursop but looked like an artichoke. The creamy flesh inside was sweet and full of seeds. We also had mamocilla which is similar to lychee—you “crack” the outer green skin with your teeth and suck on the tangy pulp that surrounds a very large seed.

Randy with Jesse James (2nd to Randy's left).